Library Devolution Conversations on Hold in Cornwall

Posted on: 20th January 2015

Library devolution conversations on hold in Cornwall whilst the impact of a legal challenge to Lincolnshire Council is being studied.

Today, at Full Council, I asked the new Portfolio Holder for Libraries, Geoff Brown, why conversations over devolution of library services to town councils seem to have stalled. He explained that, Lincolnshire was embarking on a path of devolving libraries to Town Councils when Greenwhich Leisure challenged the council that the process of transferring the running libraries was not open and transparent and they believed they could provide the service for the Council and that what they could offer was not adequately considered.

Locally officers are now reviewing processes to ensure that we adopt an open and transparent process before making decisions over running our local libraries. It was suggested that the conversations would soon re-start in areas that are expressing an interest in running their local library to avoid having to consider reducing services further, to make the necessary budget savings.